SAILOR Rising
by Sierraoscar154
Summary: In the aftermath of a devastating conflict that left thousands dead and many more wounded, one woman must continue her struggle against the forces that tried to bury her and the truth along with it. From espionage and covert operations, to all out warfare, there is no place that is safe from the forces that would destroy the world.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: In Medias Res**

* * *

"Have to trust someone to be betrayed." Captain Price, Modern Warfare 2.

* * *

The bells rang out the serene landscape. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and their beautiful, pink petals were scattered across the church grounds.

But this was not a day of celebration. Instead, it was a day of mourning, of loss, of grief.

Already, a large crowd had gathered to pay their respects, while a police cordon funneled them into the church to see the body lay in state. The body would be cremated, but for now, everyone could see the now deceased person resting peacefully at the front of the church.

After everyone had been settled in their seats, a man came to the front of the church and began to speak.

"We are now gathered here to remember the life of…"

Minako drifted off in thought. She didn't need to hear the man speaking about the person's life; she knew it front to back. It was inevitable, death, and yet everyone pretended like it never could happen to them…

* * *

"Suspect! Throw your weapons out of the window!"

Minako felt her heartbeat in her throat. The thirty or so police officers outside of the door, plus the ten man SWAT team wouldn't have stood a chance…if she had her HUD or other teammates to back her up. But that wasn't exactly the case right now.

Well, this is a very familiar feeling, she thought to herself, cradling a Kel-Tec RFB in her hands. The shootout had lasted the entire day, with lots of running from so called "allies", the police, spies…goddammit, she had fallen yet again for the same old tricks, the same old backstabbing people that had betrayed her and her friends last year.

She had come so close too. Mina closed her eyes and remembered everything that had happened over the last year or so, all the killing, the death and destruction…it was all a blur now.

"Minako…Minako…" A familiar voice whispered to her. Mina looked around the small room she had barricaded herself in to see the young, blue haired woman staring at her intently. She was propped up against one of the walls, with her trusty Glock 26 in hand.

"They don't know I'm here…" she said very quietly. "I could make a run for it, I could get the information out and…"

"Ami, do you even remember the last time we tried that!" Minako hissed at her. "You fucking died! I'm not going to lose you again!"

"But Usagi and the others out there…"

"They're not going to make it in time!" Minako growled, stuffing a couple more rounds into a spare magazine. "We have to shoot our way out of here, or else."

"Minako, what happened to not killing people?"

The question pierced Minako's conscience like an AP round through body armor. What about not killing people? She had done pretty well so far…she had never liked killing, but she was just so good at it, as her experience as a special operations operative had shown. Not that she had voluntary signed up for that part of the mission, but that was all in the past now.

"Ami, it's us or them," she answered back, racking the charging handle back and chambering a round. "I have come so far, traveled thousands and thousands of miles, fucked several guys for information, shot my way through survivalists and crazies, and I am not giving up."

Ami looked at her, and sighed.

"You've really changed, haven't you?"

Mina couldn't answer that question for a second, watching the floodlights dance over the house and the police officers rush from position to position. They were getting ready to do something.

"Yeah, I've changed," Minako sighed, turning to look at Amy. "What about…"

Ami wasn't there.

Minako blinked in disbelief.

"Ami…are you there?" she asked quietly. There was no response. Had Ami never been there at all in the first place? Was she hallucinating again, like before?

Suddenly, several flashbangs detonated outside of the house, and the police moved in for the assault.

* * *

Author's Note: And so it begins again. If you have not read "SAILOR-SF", then this story will probably not make much sense. I will do my best to write this story as best as I can, and hope to provide you, the reader, with these author's notes in order to properly explain some things throughout the story. Anyway, please enjoy this story, and I hope that it is to your liking.


	2. Chapter I

**Chapter I: The Great Escape.**

**0000hrs, 1 January 2014, Bloomington, Minnesota, United States**

_"What would happen if you loved someone, loved them with all your heart like you never thought you could, but you realized one day that they would never ever feel that way for you?" Henrietta, Gunslinger Girl._

_"Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind, But I knew there was a better way of life that I was just trying to find…" Bobby Womack, Across 110__th__ Street._

* * *

"Agent Serxner, they're here."

"Thank God, York, I was wondering when the hell they would get here."

Mina had been sitting in the safehouse kitchen for what seemed like forever. After falling back asleep for a couple of hours, she woke up and stared at the ceiling for another hour or so before heading out into the kitchen and eating some more food. Nothing much was said between the FBI agents and Mina. There was nothing much to say anyway.

"I can't wait to get home," Serxner griped, looking outside at the SUVs that had just pulled up.

"Whose great idea was it to put her out here?" Agent York kept his eye on the girl, but she didn't seem all that dangerous. It was more like a WITSEC operation, because the US Marshals were all so busy trying to round up pretty much thousands of escaped criminals from the various prisons that had been attacked during the terrorist event on 16 December 2013. Even two weeks later, over half of the escapee population was still at large, worrying pretty much everyone at what damage they could do. Gun sales were significantly up, to say the least.

"Didn't you already ask that question?" she said, shooting him a look.

"Whatever."

A couple of car doors slamming outside meant that judgment day was coming. A sharp knock on the door signaled that whoever was coming to take her away.

"Agent Serxner, it's Deputy Marshal Morrison, from the US Marshals Service."

Agent Serxner went to the door, but didn't open it immediately.

"Identification please," she said. It was prudent to see whoever was coming to transfer the prisoner was actually an uniformed officer and such.

Agent Morrison held up his ID card with a Marshals' badge on it; it had a very distinctive five point star, with the eagle emblazoned in the center of it.

"Come on in." Agent Serxner undid the deadlocks (lots of them) and opened the door up to reveal two Marshals; one was Deputy Marshal Morrison, who was dressed in a normal working business suit, but with a heavy winter coat to protect him from the harsh Minnesota weather. The other one was clad from head to toe in black, with black body armor, black ski mask, black AR-15, black helmet…these guys didn't fuck around. There was also a Taser strapped to his tactical vest, just in case things got hairy, but didn't warrant the use of deadly force.

"Well, you guys don't fuck around," York noted.

"We are from the Special Operations Group, and no, we do not fuck around, Agent," Morrison sneered. Inter-service rivalry at its best.

Serxner stopped them from escalating the conflict. "Boys, if you want to fight, take it outside. Otherwise, we have a prisoner for you."

Morrison and York glared at each other from across the room, but she was right. Morrison slammed the door shut and walked over to where Serxner had the paperwork.

"Is she a prisoner or a witness?" Morrison asked, looking suspiciously at the paperwork. It was all a jumble of useless and confusing notes that said nothing about the person in question.

"I think she's a witness…" Serxner replied, unsure of what to say next.

"But I thought she was a prisoner," York added. "I thought that she wasn't supposed to leave the house."

"That's for all witnesses and prisoners."

While those two were arguing, Morrison noted the hefty amount of paperwork from the military; a some blacked out combat reports, some psychological evaluations from Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, stating that "while the subject is possibly violent, her psychological health has deteriorated to the state that she is unable to function normally or to be any threat to military personnel. Recommended use of following medications…"

Morrison noted that they hadn't been filled, nor did the agents on scene seemed to have really read anything for that matter.

"Excuse me," he said. The two agents ignored him and continued their pointless argument.

"Excuse me!" he repeated, louder and more forceful. Serxner and York shut up and turned their attention to him.

"These reports said that she's supposed to be on some sort of medication," he growled. "She was supposed to be on a sedative of some sort!"

"Yeah, I saw that, and she was cooperative," Serxner replied, handwaving his concern away. "The medication was only for use if…"

"I don't give a fuck what you think!" Morrison shouted. "Did you even know where she came from?!"

"No, not our problem anymore, now is it?" Serxner really didn't like where this was going, and she wished that the agent would just leave them alone now.

"This person was left COMPLETELY unattended and alone, without ANY sort of restraints whatsoever, and we're in here dicking around over paperwork!" Morrison threw down the clipboard while the other SOG agent readied his weapon to secure Mina, who was still sitting in the kitchen in a small wooden chair. York and Serxner just got out of the way and let those two do their thing.

Something clicked in Mina's head. This really wasn't the way she wanted to go out. The Glock 26 that she had earlier was tucked in the small of her back, but against the four agents in the room, and especially one pointing a high powered rifle at her, she wouldn't stand much of a chance. Plus, that would attract more attention, and she certainly didn't need that.

Mina saw the Taser on the tactical vest of the SOG Marshal.

_Good times_, she bitterly thought.

"Place your hands above your head," Morrison growled, his hand on the Glock 22 in his shoulder holster. He couldn't believe the amateur nature of these FBI idiots. Why had this particular person been secured by the FBI? Why hadn't she been secured by the USMS? Why the _hell _was a civilian law enforcement agency in charge of her when the military had a big hand in everything?! She was obviously extremely dangerous, and the two agents that had been with her for the last couple of days had been either extremely brave, or stupid. Probably just stupid.

Mina complied by putting her hands on her head, but she was still sitting down.

"Gerard, secure the prisoner." The black clad agent moved in, weapon still pointed at Mina, but with fingers off the trigger. As he approached her, he lowered the weapon to reach for flexcuffs so that she could be secured for transport.

Not a good move.

Mina suddenly jumped up and snapped the Taser off of the man's tactical vest. Time slowed down as the agents in the room slowly realized what was going on. Mina first engaged the drive stun on the Taser, shocking the black clad agent and sending him to the ground, stunned. The taser was similar to Lita's; a three shot version that would allow the user a better chance against multiple targets.

There were four targets in the room. Morrison was slowly withdrawing his firearm to open fire. Agents York and Serxner were also drawing their weapons, but Morrison was in their line of fire from where they were standing; he was in the kitchen area, with York and Serxner in the living room where the TV and paperwork was being held. A small counter with an open view of the living room was in front of York and Serxner, but Morrison was right in front of that space, with the downed agent on the kitchen floor. It was a bad spot for the agents, and a perfect one for Mina.

She snapped a shot off at the downed agent, because she couldn't exactly control him and deal with the other three hostiles at the same time. It left her short of one shot, but she figured she could deal with the other agents, no problem. Her adrenaline was pumping, breathing was deep and focused, and her objective was clear; escape.

The Taser came up from aiming at the downed agent to Morrison. His pistol was halfway up and his finger was slowly coming onto the trigger, but it was too late. The next Taser shot impacted on his neck, immediately interrupting his actions and he also flopped on the ground, stunned and out of the fight.

With Morrison out of the way, the other two agents had their line of fire clear. York was standing by the open counter, while Serxner was going toward the entrance to the kitchen. Mina fired the last Taser shot at York, which impacted dead center of his chest, and he too was out of the fight.

That left just Serxner. She entered the kitchen, gun up and ready to roll. There was no questioning it now; Mina was an armed and dangerous person, and she posed a definite threat.

Mina only had one arm free to engage Serxner; the other arm was busy with the Taser in hand, depressing the trigger so that the other agents would stay down. Serxner was just a second or so from pulling the trigger.

Mina made a gamble, and dropped the Taser. She charged at Serxner, slapping the gun away from her, then grabbed the weapon, twisting it around so that it faced her. The resulting pain and fear of shooting herself caused the agent to drop her weapon.

* * *

The house across the street from Mina's position, the SWAT team hadn't heard much.

"Alpha 2, did you hear anything from the agents inside?" the team leader asked, looking through a pair of Night Vision Goggles at the house. He couldn't really see anything, and wished he'd brought the infrared pair tonight…oh well.

Alpha 2 was in the lead SUV of the three vehicle convoy that had pulled up. The SOG team had asked for the FBI SWAT team's radio frequency, just in case something were to happen. "That's a negative. Paperwork problems?"

"I don't know, they should have called back now…" Alpha 1 team leader looked through his binoculars at the safehouse. The lights were on, but no one was home…

* * *

Inside, the struggle was getting intense. After knocking the weapon out of Agent Serxner's hand, she was trying to prevent all the other agents in the room from getting back up and engaging her as well as defeating the lone agent standing.

Mina flung herself at Serxner, body slamming her onto the ground and ramming her head back on the hard linoleum.

Agent Serxner wasn't going to go down that easily though. Serxner hit Mina several times in the face and tried to get up and to her weapon, which was hiding underneath a table.

Mina got back up again and grabbed Serxner from behind, trying to pin her back to the ground again.

In desperation, Serxner grabbed at Mina's hair, yanking on it as hard as she could. Mina had to bite her lip to prevent herself from screaming out, otherwise it might attract the attention of the people outside.

Gathering what little strength she had left, Mina picked up Serxner, who was still flaying about and grunting in pain, and tossed her onto the kitchen table.

Above the table was a free standing light; Serxner went straight through it and into the table, completely stunned and out of the fight.

* * *

"Something's wrong!" Alpha 1 said, watching one of the lights go out in the house. "All units, move in, move in!"

The FBI SWAT team numbered about six members and was stationed in a bland looking house across the street. They ran outside and went into tactical mode, ready for anything. Three of them were armed with M4 Carbines with opticals and foregrips; one was armed with just a Glock 22, but he had a ballistic shield that would protect against incoming fire. The other two had MP5SD5s, extremely quiet and accurate submachines guns.

At the same time, the SOG team burst out from their from vehicles; there was an oversized team of nine members, with a similar loadout to the FBI SWAT team.

"We got the back!" Alpha 1 shouted to Alpha 2 as the SOG team approached the front door.

"Roger that, we'll go in on your order," Alpha 2 replied. He readied his Glock 22, and made sure his team was ready to go in.

* * *

Mina figured she only had about ten seconds before SWAT team burst in. She took a quick mental checklist of what she needed; from what she could tell, it was cold outside with snow on the ground, so she needed a jacket. Second, she needed a gun, and that she already had. Third, she would need some sort of money in order to buy what she needed on the road.

It wouldn't matter though, if she got caught. Agent Serxner's jacket was hanging on a coat rack near the kitchen; it wasn't very heavy, but it was a start. She grabbed it, and quickly pulled out a wallet from Agent York's very limp body. Now all that was left was to leave.

Easier said than done.

* * *

Alpha 1's team charged through the snow, huffing and puffing all the while as they lugged their equipment laden bodies through the cold air. Temperatures were well below zero degrees, with the high for today maybe reaching negative ten. Maybe.

They made it back in time, and for a moment, Alpha 1 thought he could see someone moving about in the kitchen area. He wasn't quite sure, but they would soon find out.

"We're at the back, on my count!" he radioed to the other team.

Mina was out of time. There was a door at the back, leading to the kitchen, but she could see the SWAT team already lined up and ready to breach.

"One!"

She needed to interrupt them before they breached the door and got the drop on her.

"Two!"

Mina couldn't think of anything else to do. She had a gun, but that wasn't going to do much against heavily armored and armed SWAT agents. She might take out one or two, but then the rest would shoot her. And that wouldn't end very well.

"Three!"

_Now or never, Mina._

* * *

Alpha 1's second entry man reached for the door handle, with the pointman covering the door with his shield up.

"Go!" Alpha 1 pointed to the door, and the SWAT agent reached for it.

He never got that chance. Mina swung the door out with all of her might, ramming it into the agent and sending him tumbling over into a snowbank. Mina then turned her attention to the agent with the ballistic shield; if she was going to have any sort of chance, she would need to get that shield away from him.

Already, the years of training that the FBI Agents had was kicking in as they saw the first man go down. Weapons went from being pointed slightly down with fingers off of triggers to being raised up to shoot at the target. The pointman was already pointing his pistol at Mina, and so he squeezed off a shot.

Mina felt the round zip by her and impact with a tree nearby. By the time the SWAT agent was about to shoot again, Mina ducked down and swept her leg across his legs, causing him to lose balance.

The SWAT agent fell down, flailing a little bit as he realized that he was not standing up anymore. Mina quite literally, pulled the ballistic shield from the agent's arm as he was falling down, wrenching it from his grasp and hastening his fall toward earth. He hit the ground with a loud thud, out of the fight.

The other agents at this time had gotten their act together, and started firing their weapons. Mina was in an odd position with the shield; the handle was on the other side, so she held it with both hands on the side. Bullets started snapping against the shield as the agents fired away from a distance of fifteen feet away. Mina felt a slight burning sensation on her hands as the fragmented bullets snapped at her digits and embedded themselves in them.

"This is Alpha 1! Suspect is in the back! Agents down!" she heard one of the agents scream into his radio. Whoever was out front, they would be back there within seconds if she didn't deal with these guys first. She charged at them, holding the shield up all the while, bullets shattering against the hardened steel and Kevlar. The agents tried to backpedal, but one of them tripped in the deep snow, letting go of his weapon and fumbling about in the cold, wet stuff, unable to do much of anything. Mina slammed into Alpha 1, sending him into the other agent that was firing behind him, and eliminating them from the fight.

* * *

In the front of house, the SOG team crashed through the door and began to clear the house, their weapons up and in the ready positions. Despite the gunfire out back, they were displaced enough to continue to clear the house before going out back.

"Morrison, are you alright?" Alpha 2 asked, looking at the downed agents on the floor.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," Morrison replied, sitting gently up and clutching his chest. "It hurts a little bit though…got hit with the taser."

"Okay." Alpha 2 hit the transmit button his radio. "This is SOG unit Alpha 2, we need immediate medical assistance at the following location…" He gave the location of the house right before an agent yelled through a window to the kitchen.

"Sir, you have to come see this!"

Alpha 2 walked over to the window. What he saw stunned him.

Six highly trained FBI SWAT team members lay groaning on the ground, some with injuries that were bleeding out and staining the pure white snow.

"Jesus." This was not good at all. If this person could take down a SWAT team like that…then she was a major threat to the public and law enforcement. Alpha 2 reached for his radio again.

"This is Alpha 2 to command. Get everyone out here. We have a major situation."

* * *

Mina ran through someone's backyard, knocking over a small swingset, covered in snow and ice. _They probably needed to replace that one anyway, _she thought. She continued to run through the backyard and out into the street, where she heard the squealing of tires. She looked to her right and saw the hi-beams of an oncoming car.

_This is it. Not even five minutes after my escape and I'm already done for._

Mina sighed and waited for the car to hit her.

* * *

Cassie Hanson wanted to be at home, since there was going to be a lot of work tomorrow, despite it being the holiday. She worked for a women's shelter, but she just liked to help people in general and if someone was in need, then dammit, she was going to help them. Sometimes she patrolled the streets of Minneapolis or St. Paul, just looking for anyone who had been left out in the open that the shelters had missed or would give them a lift to somewhere they could get a hot meal and shelter. It was a death sentence to be trapped outside in the sub-zero weather, and quite frankly, too many homeless people died because of inadequate housing and exposure to the elements. It was just wrong.

Her reliable 2006 Toyota Camry had served her well, but she was thinking about trading it for something else…maybe even a Lexus.

All of that snapped out of her mind when she saw the girl standing in the middle of the road, looking absolutely broken.

Cassie slammed on the brakes to her car, trying not to run the girl down.

"Get out of the way!" she yelled, but she was travelling too fast and the roads were slick with ice. In a moment of desperation, Cassie jerked the wheel to the left side of the road. The car slipped to the left, almost taking out a parked car, but Cassie managed to regain control and bring the car to a complete stop.

"Phew." Cassie took a look in her rearview mirror to see if the girl was alright. She was just standing there, still looking very broken, but now very confused to what had just happened.

Cassie narrowed her eyes. This wasn't good, considering that it was very cold outside and the girl was just wearing a light jacket. Something was up.

She opened the door up, the dashboard making a "ding ding ding" sound to let the driver know that the door was open.

"Hey!" she yelled to her. "Are you okay?!"

She was standing about ten feet away, and Cassie couldn't really tell what was going on with her. She was just standing there, just dazed.

"You okay?" Cassie repeated. She walked a little bit closer, the snow crunching beneath her heavy boots.

Her hands were slightly bloody, and she was now shivering uncontrollably in the frigid air.

"What are you doing out here?" Cassie gave the girl a once over, and notice that she was very pale, very thin, and looked like she had been beaten up. It didn't take much to put two and two together; she had just run away from a very bad fight.

"Oh god, come with me." There was no time to think about the situation. Cassie slowly but firmly guided the girl over to the car and put her into the backseat.

"What's your name?"

The girl didn't answer for a second, as if she was really trying to remember. She was sitting there, just staring.

"Amy," she finally replied, blinking her eyes a couple of times.

"Amy, we're going to take you to the shelter right now. Going to get you someplace safe."

"Mmm…" was the dazed response.

Cassie knew better to pry into what had happened. Experiencing a traumatic event like being beaten, raped or assaulted took the life out of most people, and forcing them to speak about it right away was not a good course of action.

"We're going to get you someplace safe," Cassie repeated, under her breath. She drove away from the street, just as several police cars screamed by, lights and siren cutting through the biting winter air.

* * *

Author's Notes:

"Agent Serxner, they're here." "Thank God, York" The two FBI agents in this chapter are named for two characters in two different series. Serxner comes from the TV series "Sleeper Cell," and York comes from the video game "Deadly Premonition."

"It was more like a WITSEC operation." WITSEC is the Witness Protection Program, run by the United States Marshals Service. Which leads us to…

United States Marshals Service- One of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United States. They deal in many things, but prisoner transport is one of their specialties. Hence, why they're taking Mina off of the FBI's hands.

"Agent Serxner, it's Deputy Marshal Morrison, from the US Marshals Service." Morrison is based of two different character; Inspector Javert from _Les Miserables,_ and Deputy Marshal Gerard from _The Fugitive _and _US Marshals._

"We are from the Special Operations Group…" The SOG is an elite branch of the US Marshals, tasked with handling very dangerous operations, such as this one.

"Gerard, secure the prisoner." Again, a shout out to _The Fugitive._


	3. Chapter II

**Chapter II: Re-formation**

**0130hrs, 1 January 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States**

* * *

_"Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it." Martin Luther_

_"There is not one little blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice." John Calvin_

* * *

Cassie drove up to the parking lot of their destination. Mina was jostled awake by the car hitting a small snow drift, saving Cassie the trouble of waking her up.

"Ughhh…"

"Ah, you're awake!" Cassie would have liked none other than to fall asleep as well, but there was work to be done. She parked the car in a barely visible parking spot, covered by snow and black ice; the spot had a small sign marking it out that read "Volunteer Parking Only".

She put the car into "park" and turned off the car, pulling the key out of the ignition.

"You okay back there?" she asked the poor girl in the back.

She nodded, albeit weakly.

"Good, let's get you out of the car and into the shelter."

Cassie opened her door and hopped out, feeling the cold air blast against her chapped and dry skin. It had been a bad winter, and it wasn't going to get any better soon.

Mina cringed as the air hit her, wiping away the heat from the car interior.

"The faster we move, the faster we get inside!" Cassie chirped, trying not to let her teeth chatter too much.

The two of them moved quickly, heads hunched down and trying to make themselves as small as possible against the winter air. When they were a couple of feet away from the entrance to the shelter, Cassie sprinted forward and unlocked the door, shoving it open against the raging wind.

"Come on in, Amy!" she beckoned. Mina charged for the door, as fast as her tired legs would carry her, and flung herself into the warm building.

* * *

The St. Timothy House for Battered Women and Families had been set up by Jade Lake Lutheran Church sometime in the last year or so, mainly to help out in the community, but it also helped to have a shelter of that sort in a mostly middle-class environment. The surroundings were peaceful, hospitable, and beautiful, while generous donors gave thousands of dollars to help alleviate their guilty consciences for not doing more work in the community. An overzealous council member tried to get the name changed to "Womyn," which resulted in a two hour debate that lead nowhere, but at least it brought up the point that gender politics were still a source of contention in the modern day.

* * *

Mina took a look at her surroundings; she was in a small, two story building that was right next to the church. There was a small kitchen and living room on the first floor, with some rooms for people to stay in. She figured that the upstairs was for living quarters only, and that the higher capacity rooms for families would also be located up there as well. A flight of small stairs lead upward next to the kitchen, decorated with the paintings of children who had stayed their previously.

Speaking of decorations, there were some streamers for the new year hanging from the ceiling, but despite the new year celebrations that normally seemed to go on, there really didn't seem to be much evidence of a party at all.

"There's room for about ten families, but we're running at about half capacity, which is good," Cassie said absentmindly, rummaging through some cabinets for blankets and sheets. We don't want people to come here, funny enough."

Mina gave her a look, but she was right. Women and their families showing up in shelters was not a good thing. Of course, they might not be showing up because they were too afraid to leave, which was an entirely different issue unto itself. The day people could live in peace…yeah, that'll be the day. Mina hoped that this entire mess would blow over, but she couldn't stay here for a long time.

But for now, she needed a place to sleep.

"Alright, here you go," Cassie said, bringing her some sheets and blankets. "Bathroom is right down the hall from your room."

"Thanks…" was all that Mina could say.

"No problem. We'll have to do some paperwork in the morning, but I'm sure you need the rest. Go ahead and sleep."

Mina just nodded and trudged her way down the hall, wanting nothing more to get into a comfortable bed, away from hovering FBI agents.

As "Amy" walked toward her room, Cassie could see that she had bruises up and down her arms, and that she had a very uncomfortable limp. Whatever this girl had been through, it had been hell.

* * *

Mina fell asleep so fast that she didn't even have time to make the bed. When she woke up from the dreamless sleep the next morning, she could barely remember what had happened that last night.

"At least is isn't the _Hangover_…" Mina muttered to herself. "Or an actual hangover." She had experienced some of those in her lifetime.

She took a brief moment to look around her room; a window looked out to a lake nearby, with some houses and a large snow drift piling up next to the window. The room itself was a bland, but functional one, with no decorations and no other furniture save a closet and a desk.

_Grrrrrrrrmmmm._ Mina's stomach reminded her that it needed to be fed, unfortunately. Thankfully, she could smelling something cooking from the kitchen, and she stood herself up to find out what was going on.

"Mmm…" The sounds of bacon frying and movement from down the hall brought her from her tiny room out to the common area. At least she still had her clothes on from last night, otherwise she would have probably waltzed out there with no clothes on, which would have been very…

"Well, hello there."

Mina turned to see…Raye? No, it wasn't Raye. It was a girl who looked like her, but she was different; she looked like she could have been from Vietnam or Laos, rather than Japan.

She stuck out her hand. "Victoria." It was like she had appeared out of nowhere.

Mina blinked. "Huh?"

The woman smiled at her. "Victoria Moua. I think you're new here, considering you weren't here yesterday."

Mina took the hand and shook it gingerly. "Oh…yeah. I got in late last night."

"Cassie must have really had something for you, cause usually they get ready ahead of time." Victoria went over to the table in the middle of the small dining area and sat in a chair, motioning her to come and sit with her.

"You must have come in really late last night," Victoria said, echoing Mina. "That must have sucked."

Mina nodded, sitting down in the chair.

"Morning Amy!" Cassie popped her head from beneath the counter, rummaging for another saucepan. "Need any help?" Victoria offered, starting to stand up.

"No, I found it." Cassie took out the saucepan she had been looking for and placed it on the stove, tossing some leftover grease and fat drippings from the bacon into the pan; she would later use it for other recipes, as needed.

"Alright then."

The two of them sat in silence they listened to Cassie cook up breakfast. Mina broke the silence, finally.

"So…who else is here?"

Victoria was quick to answer. "Well, there's Johnnie. She's been here for a couple of weeks. Her husband kinda got behind on settlement payments, and tried to have her killed for insurance money."

"Uh…okay." Mina was surprised by Victoria's nonchalant attitude toward the entire thing, but then again, she must have been used to that entire sordid mess.

"Next is Allison, she's here with her kids, but they're out of the picture for the time being. She sent them off with some grandparents out of state as they try to get everything sorted out with her abusive husband."

"What needs to be sorted out?" Mina asked.

Victoria grimaced. "Divorce settlement. Nasty stuff."

Cassie walked over with hot cups of coffee. "Here's some coffee, girls. Breakfast should be ready soon."

Mina changed the subject. "Anyone else?"

"Billie and Jamie, they're from out of town, Rochester, I think. They've got a couple of kids, Rue and Patti. I don't know them very well, since they just got here last week."

Victoria took a sip of coffee before continuing on. "So, what's your story, Amy?" she asked, with a smile.

Mina stared at her coffee cup on the table, cursing the alias she chose whilst staying here. That name brought with it tons of baggage, and every time someone spoke it, another heavy bag was added. She could remember the life fading from her eyes, the jets screaming overhead, the approaching choppers, the gunfire in the distance…

"Hello…? Earth to Amy?" Victoria waved her hand in front of Mina, whose eyes had glazed over.

She snapped out of it. "Oh…oh, sorry."

"Looks like it was pretty bad." Victoria smiled weakly. "I'll tell you mine story, if it'll make you feel better."

She opened her mouth to speak, but at that point, several other people in the shelter had wandered out of their rooms and had started to congregate by the kitchen table.

"Victoria, who's the new guy?" one of them asked. She had fairly dark skin, wore very short, cropped hair covered with a beanie hat. She had her hands shoved into an oversized hoodie that had "Minnesota Timberwolves" emblazed on the front of it, and matching sweatpants.

"Johnnie, this is Amy. She just came in last night."

Johnnie flopped in a chair next to Victoria and studied her intently.

"Hmm." She gestured to Mina's arms. "Looks like you've had a rough time."

Instinctively, Mina covered up some of the bruises on her arms, evidence of her fight with the FBI and US Marshals last night.

Johnnie just nodded again. She had been there, done that.

"Okay girls, breakfast is up!"

A couple of platters of bacon, pancakes, and porridge was the order of the day. Cassie also placed some cereal and milk nearby, just in case someone didn't want to have such a hearty breakfast for the day.

"Mmm, good stuff as always Cassie," Johnnie managed to say in between mouthfuls of pancakes. "I'm sure going to miss it when I leave here."

"Well, I'm sure you'll do fine next week," Cassie replied, with a smile on her face. Mina had no idea what they were talking about, but she figured that it had to do with leaving this place. Good for her.

The rest of breakfast passed by without too much of an incident, until Billie and Jamie's kids came screaming into the kitchen for food.

"Sorry about that," Billie said sheepishly to Mina, after admonishing her child for not being more polite. Her kid, Rue, looked suspiciously like her namesake in the _Hunger Games_, but with a more hyperactive streak. Billie was tall and dark skinned, with wavy brown hair. Mina couldn't exactly place what ethnicity she was from, but then again, she herself didn't look out of place with the amount of blondes they had here in Minnesota…

Jamie, the other woman with a kid, didn't really speak too much to Mina; she had a short, pudgy figure, with short, cropped brown hair. Her kid, Patti, sat on her lap, munching away at a bowl of Rice Krispies.

"It's okay," Mina replied to Billie, patting Rue on the head. Rue looked up at her and flashed a big smile, appreciative of the attention.

It didn't take much longer for breakfast to be quickly gobbled up, and with help from everyone pitching in, the dishes were done and put away in no time. Mina found herself sitting on one of the couches in the small living area, staring outside for any police or federal agents that might come in her direction, but mostly just thinking over what had just happened to her.

She closed her eyes again. Amy flashed before her, with a slight smile and her unnatural blue hair, tapping away at a tablet computer or fixing something that was way above Mina's knowledge level. The other girls were there too, Serena stuffing her fat face with sticky buns and rice, Lita cleaning her room obsessively, and Raye smiling in front the temple…

_No…can't think of the temple…_

Mina winced as she remembered the explosion, the flames, the screams…

"Hey."

Victoria's voice interrupted her thoughts again.

"Hey, Amy, come on," she repeated, gesturing toward another room further back in the shelter. She hadn't noticed it before, but it was tucked away behind the staircase on the far right of the building.

Mina looked at her suspiciously. "Where are we going?"

"Bible study."

"Oh no, I'm not religious."

Victoria shrugged. "It's okay. Neither am I. But you'll find out that it gets really boring around here right quick."

Victoria looked at her intently at her, shaming her into getting up off her raggedy ass and to wherever they were going to have "Bible study."

Reluctantly, Mina picked herself off of the couch and walked slowly with Victoria toward the room that Bible study was held in.

* * *

Chaplain Richard Hanson was one of the pastors of the Jade Lake Lutheran Church (ELCA), one of the many, many Lutheran churches in the Midwest. This was due to the fact that during the mid-1800s, immigrants from Norway and Sweden moved to the area, and brought with them various cultural quirks, which developed into the "Minnesota Nice" stereotype. Chaplain Richard was a graduate of the Gettysburg Seminary, site of the famous Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, but that was beside the point; he had a job to do. Every Wednesday, he would hold bible study with the Women's Shelter, and while optional, everyone attended, partly out of a need for spiritual fulfillment, but mostly to alleviate the boredom.

* * *

"Hello everyone. Have a great new year?" Chaplain Richard had rushed in at about two minutes to nine, after being held up by some police officers looking for some escaped fugitive. Thankfully, the enter group had gathered in the small, but cozy study in the women's shelter on their own accord, which made starting all the easier.  
"As well as can be expected," Allison said, softly. The pastor nodded at her comment and scanned the group of women assembled before him.

"I'm too old for that party crap," Johnnie piped up, slouching in her chair.

"We all went to bed after the ball dropped in New York,"

"But it wasn't midnight here," Chaplain Richard pointed out. He furrowed his eyebrow, wondering where in the world his wife had been last night anyway.

"Like I said, I'm tired and getting too old for that stuff," Johnnie repeated, sniffling a little bit because of the cold, dry air.

Seeing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Chaplain Richard decided to start the study…but not before he spotted a new face in the crowd.

"Oh, we have a newcomer!" His bright blue eyes lit up, contrasting with his greying hair and wrinkled skin. He might be in his late fifties, but he still had plenty of life in him. "Your name is…?"

Mina almost blurted out her real name before catching herself. "Amy." She tried to smile, but all she could do was lift some of her muscles on her mouth a little bit.

Chaplain Richard made a note that he had not been informed of the new person, and that he was going to have to talk to Cassie about that. That probably had to do with why she had been out last night.

But at the moment, he was going to proceed with the study.

"Anyway, let's open with a prayer."

All of the other women in the group bowed their heads, and Mina followed suit. She had some experience with Christians during her time overseas as a child, and along with Raye's Catholic schooling, had a vague idea about how some of the rituals and symbols meant. So she played along, listening to the pastor drone on until he finished his prayer.

"…God, please protect our soldiers overseas, please bring healing to this nation in its time of greatest need, and please bless these women as they continue to heal and recover. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen."

Mina noted that some of the women made the cross sign with their fingers, crossing up to their head, to the right, then to the left, before bringing the hand down. Again, she had seen Raye do it sometimes, but she refrained from doing it herself.

"Well, let's start then. Please turn to Luke 3:7-23." There was a shuffling of pages as the group turned to the place in their bibles. There wasn't enough to go around, as Mina soon figured out.

"Ah, Amy, please share with Victoria, why don't you?" Chaplain Richard said, noting the lack of bibles at the table.

Victoria nodded, and pushed the worn bible toward the center of the table. Mina looked at the old book, wondering how it could have survived years and years of abuse…but then again, it was like some of the women here. Battered, broken in places, but still going strong.

"Ahem." The Chaplain cleared his throat before speaking the reading. Those cold Minnesota days could do a number on the vocal cords.

"John spoke to the crowds coming to be baptized by him. He said, "You are like a nest of poisonous snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming of God's anger?"

The Chaplain's voice blurred into the background again as Mina tried to tune him out. She really wasn't all that religious, and being in a foreign country with a completely different set of values and attitudes, alone, cut off from support…she was just going to have to make do. When in Rome…

"If you have extra clothes, you should share with those who have none. And if you have extra food, you should do the same…Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" John replied, "Don't force people to give you money. Don't bring false charges against people. Be happy with your pay…John said many other things to warn the people. He also preached the good news to them."

* * *

"Hey Chaplain," Johnnie piped up. "Got a question for you."

"Sure."

"This seems really similar to what we read before Christmas."

He smiled. "I do have an answer to that question. How about we finish up this passage, and I'll explain it?"

Johnnie shrugged. "Sure."

* * *

"But John found fault with Herod, the ruler of Galilee, because of Herodias. She was the wife of Herod's brother. John also spoke strongly to Herod about all the other evil things he had done. So Herod locked him up in prison. He added this sin to all his others…"

Bible verses were always a mixed bag; to a person devoutly engaged in Christianity, it could be an uplifting experience. To everyone else, it kinda sounded really boring.

"Well, so that was the passage from Luke," Chaplain Richard thankfully concluded, looking up from his bible at the group of semi-bored women.

"Now, you were asking how very similar this was, Johnnie."

She nodded. "Yeah, it sure seemed familiar."

"Do you want the long version or short version?"  
She crossed her arms. "Enlighten me."

"Well, there's a couple of theories out there, but the most common one is Q-Source."

The expression on Johnnie's face told him that she had just stumbled into a world of academic hurt. "Uh…what?"

"Q-Source is a hypothetical document that many scholars think Luke and Matthew got their sources from, the other one being the Gospel of Mark. Q-Source might be an actual book, or just a plain document. The main point however, is that it is an actual written source. Many traditions were still passed down by word of mouth, and while it kept the tradition alive, the oral tradition…"

Some of the women snickered when they heard the word "oral"

"…is unreliable, with significant changes from one person to another. For example, the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ were both oral traditions, but were written down some time later. The teachings of Socrates were not written by him, but by his student, Plato, and hence, are not actually his words, but Plato's interpretation of them. Perhaps not even that."

"Okay, Professor," Johnnie said, holding up her arms in mock surrender. "You've got me confused. But hey, whatever."

"Well, at least you were willing to listen." Chaplain Richard pulled out his cellphone and checked the time. "Oh dear, we've been going on for much too long. Time for a nice break!"

He got up from the chair he had been standing in and shuffled off to the kitchen, about to have some choice words to his wife.

* * *

"So, what did you think?" Billie asked Mina, bouncing Rue on her lap. The children were a bit fidgety, but had not made much of a fuss while the good Chaplain was talking. Perhaps there was a divine force involved after all…

Mina gave a weak smile, trying to conceal her boredom.

"It was nice."

Billie just smiled back at her, knowing what emotion she was trying to hide. "Look, there's only two kinds of boredom. Boredom from sitting around, doing nothing, or boredom from doing something that you don't want to do."

Mina shrugged. _You have no idea._ "I guess that's true."

"If you don't mind me asking," Allison said all of a sudden, "When did you get in last night?"

Mina turned in her chair to look at the girl sitting on the right of her. She didn't look any older than twenty or so, but had a very generic look about her; brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin. Nothing much to write home about.  
"I got in about one forty this morning, I think,"

"Did Cassie pick you up?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah…well, she almost ran me over."

That got some chuckles from the group.

"Tell me about it," Jamie scoffed, shuffling about in her chair. It creaked a little bit from her hefty size. "She almost killed me going around a corner when we were coming back from the courthouse. Drives like the devil, I tell you."

Mina tried to smile, to make the best out of a not so good situation, but inside she was dead. What could she do now?

"Well, I hope you like it here," Allison said, bringing Mina back again from her depression. "It's been nice here, and I hope to leave soon after we get everything sorted out at home."

"Mmm-hmm," Johnnie added. "We're all running from something here. Seemed like a nice place to stop and get back on track."

"What made you stop running?" Mina asked her. It was a very blunt question, and most of the women there looked at her as if she had suggested that they were from Venus or something to that extent.

Johnnie was unperturbed however. "I dunno. I was just tired of running away from my problems. They never seemed to get solved, and every time I would try to stop and fix it by myself, it would only get worse. But Cassie here…" She jerked her thumb toward the kitchen area, "She really helped me out. I don't know where I would be, but I've been a year without booze or any sort of drugs, so I guess that counts for something."

That brought a round of applause from the group. Addition was something that was so difficult to get a handle on, and to be free from the chains of any sort of addition for a year was no small task.

"Well…thanks," Mina said to her. "Thanks for sharing your story."

"You don't have to share yours yet," Johnnie replied, adjusting the beanie on her head. "And you may never even say it to us. But that's okay. You got to do what's best for you, you know?"

_Well, that's something that we can all agree on,_ Mina thought. She nodded her tact reply to Johnnie, ending that particular line of conversation. The group quickly broke up into people stretching their legs and conversing idly about the upcoming events at the shelter.

* * *

Mina really wanted to drift off now into sweet unconsciousness, but the rest of the group kept her up with their small talk; so she just sat in her chair and closed her eyes, letting their conversations blur into the background.

"Have you heard from your husband?" she heard Billie say to someone.

"Nah, he's still at that stupid complex down in Iowa." It sounded like Allison who replied back.

Now that got her attention. A complex? She opened her eyes a little bit and looked at the two of them, who were standing near the entrance of the room.

"Where is it exactly?" Billie asked.

"Osceola, Iowa."

Billie shook her head. "No idea where it is."

Allison looked like she didn't care at all either. "He's supposedly not to tell anyone, but he sent me an email last week and asked me to come join him there."

"Would you?"

Allison scoffed. "Hell no. I'm doing just fine here and he's still late on child support. I have no intentions of joining that man at some 'complex'."

"Well, I'm glad for you."

While the idea was tempting, Mina had no clue where Osceloa, Iowa, was located, and she would need some sort of transportation to get down there, which she had no way of obtaining at the moment. She closed her eyes and let their conversation drift off.

* * *

While the rest of the group was milling about in the study area, the husband and wife team was having an argument.

"Cassie, why in the name of God did you not go the police!" Chaplain Richard hissed to Cassie in the kitchen.

"Rick, I thought that bringing her here would be the best course of action!" Cassie shot back.

"She was out in the open, with nothing more than a flimsy coat that wouldn't have done her any good."

"There are rules and regulations for these sorts of things!" Richard argued, handing her a can of cream of mushroom soup.

"I am perfectly aware of that," Cassie said, taking the can from him and slamming it onto the kitchen counter, ready to open it up with a can opener.

Chaplain Richard sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Look, I'm sorry. Just with Kathie overseas, and near that island where they had that big battle…"

"Yeah. I know." Cassie smiled at him, thinking of their only daughter. "We put her through hell when we moved all around Minnesota."

Chaplain Richard nodded. "It was only natural that she would go off and do her own thing."

"Well, you'd better get back to your flock," Cassie gestured. The bunch of them were still milling about in the meeting room, staring idly at their bibles or conversing with each other. Richard nodded to her, and left her to finish up cooking.

"Alright everyone," he announced loudly, getting the group's attention. "We're going to turn to Paul's letters to the Galatians."

Slowly, the group of women shuffled to their seats, opening up their bibles to the correct page.

"How long does this go on?" Mina whispered to Victoria, trying not to sound too crass about the entire affair.

"Until lunch."

"Which is…?"

"At twelve."

Mina took a look at a clock on the wall; it read 10:40.

_This is going to be so fun, _she thought.


	4. Chapter III

**Chapter III: Exfiltration**

**1200hrs, 3 January 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States**

_"I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival." Kurt Vonnegut_

* * *

Mina's stay at the woman's shelter was relatively uneventful, considering the situation she found herself in. Twice, she had jumped at the sound of police cars passing by, but they did not stop at the shelter. She hoped that they would call off the search for her, but they would never do that until she was caught or dead. Neither of those sounded particularly great options, so she just had to wait it out until she could come up with a better plan.

She shook her head. There was something she could do in order to get out…right? Sitting here wasn't getting her anywhere. Mina placed her hand on her head, wincing as she did so. There wasn't much pain, but there was just _something_ going on up there that felt like it was clouding her judgment.

There was a knocking at the door, which startled Cassie for a second. Perhaps someone needed more help? She put down the pan she had been washing from lunch and went to the front of the building. Outside, a Minneapolis PD police cruiser was parked by her own car; not surprising of course, considering the nature of the shelter. A police officer was standing outside the door, holding a piece of paper. Cassie opened up the door and let the police officer come inside.

"Can I help you?" she asked, trying to be as friendly as possible, closing the door behind them. Minnesota nice at its best.

"Yes ma'am," the officer said back, grateful that Cassie had let them into a nice, warm building. The temperature was at a cool -10 degrees Fahrenheit, and flurries were falling from the dreary sky. "There was a very serious attack on some federal agents on New Year's…"

"I saw that on the news," Cassie interrupted. "It was only a couple miles from here…"

The officer nodded. "You might have seen us patrol through the neighborhood…"

Again, Cassie interrupted. "I think one of your officers came by…"

The police officer was unperturbed by Cassie's interruptions. She was just trying to be helpful. A burst of garbled radio traffic from his radio also added to their conversation; that was more annoying than a helpful citizen. "Yes ma'am. At that time, we did not enough information concerning the suspect. However, we have a photo of the suspect now, and we are distributing to the community at large in order that this suspect be caught."

"Sounds serious."

"Yes. The person in question attacked several federal agents and wounded several of them."

The officer took out the photo from his jacket pocket, as his radio sputtered some more unintelligible chatter. He handed it to her.

Cassie didn't even hear what the officer said next, because she immediately recognized the person in the picture.

The blonde haired, sullen looking girl, stared at her from the picture. It had been taken right after she had been detained by US forces after the Battle of Socotra, and scrawled on the bottom of the photograph was her name; Mina Aino.

"…and so, if you have any tips…" The officer's voice came back into being.

"Officer."

"…please don't hesitate to call us. Here's my card…"

"Officer!"

Cassie's voice cracked a little bit and she forced herself to speak. "Officer, I've seen this woman."

Immediately, the officer snapped into a high alert mode. "Where?"

"We…I…I took her in. I thought she…she had been beaten up or something like that. She's in the back of the shelter in one of the rooms."

The police officer was familiar with the shelter and their mission. "I understand. Has she done anything while here?"

"She's mostly slept…" Cassie's mind was racing a mile a minute. _How could I have let this happen?_

"Okay, do me a favor," the officer said. "Stay right here. I'm going to call for backup. How many people are in the building right now?"

"There's six people minus that…person. Two kids with them."

"Shit," the officer muttered. "Okay, just, wait here. Don't do anything." He walked out of the house and got on his radio, keeping his eye on the interior of the building but trying to keep out of earshot of any suspecting listeners in the house.

"Dispatch, this is 614, we've got something on our suspect, over."

That got the dispatcher's attention "Go ahead 614."

"I'm at the St. Timothy House, by Jade Lake Church, one of the volunteers said that they took in a person matching the suspect. She says that she's here, right now, over."

That got the dispatcher's attention right away. "Understood 614, standby." She immediately looked at her computer screen to see which units were in the area, and if there was a SWAT unit on standby. Of course, once the federal units got word of the suspect…

"614, this is dispatch. I've got 655 and 715 canvassing less than a mile away, I'll send them right your way, over."

"Roger. You might want to get the SWAT team out here too."

Something that happened all too frequently in law enforcement was jurisdictional friction; that is, when multiple police or law enforcement agencies had basically the same area of responsibility, things could get messy. In this case, the Minneapolis PD was directly in conflict with the US Marshals and the FBI, and at least they could nab some of the glory if they caught the suspect first.

"Already taken care of. Hold position, over."

"Roger. I'm going dark for a second, over."

"Understood. Out."

The officer turned off his radio as to not alert anyone else inside the house. He went back inside the house, and put his hand on his sidearm, a Beretta 92. It had never been fired in anger, as with most police officers in the United States, but in a blink of an eye, that could change.

* * *

Mina was still sitting in her room when she heard someone knocking at the door. She wondered how long she could stay here before moving on; police were combing the area, and it wasn't going to be long before they figured out her location.

She could hear a couple of voices talking now, and then something that sounded like a radio going off. That meant only one thing. It was time to go.

Thankfully, she didn't have a lot to pack up, which expiated the process considerably. A couple of dollars thrust into her pocket with Agent York's hapless wallet trailing along for the ride, and her coat…no, she couldn't wear that coat she picked up from the safe house…by this time, they would have taken inventory and that coat would have been added to her description being passed around in the Twin Cities area.

She would have to do without.

* * *

Cassie's mind was racing a mind a minute now, remembering the snippets of data that had come in over that last couple of days concerning the attack on the FBI agents. The TV broadcast from the local news channel had been particularly disturbing, with the blood of several very badly wounded agents turning the crisp, white snow into a gory, sordid mess.

First thing was first; she needed to get everyone out of the house. Everyone was still in the living room though, since it was post lunch and they usually gathered there to chitchat before spending the rest of the afternoon searching for jobs, getting legal paperwork in order, and looking after the kids.

Cassie entered the living room, with Victoria and Billie glancing up at from a game of gin rummy that they were playing.

"Everyone, we need to leave the house now," Cassie said to the group of people in the living room.

"What for?" Billie asked, but Victoria sensed something was up right away, and stood up from her chair.

"I'll get Amy," Victoria said, starting to leave the room.

"No!" Cassie interrupted. Victoria and the rest of the women there looked at her strangely. She was not acting like herself, which meant something _very_ bad was going on.

"Just. Get. Out," Cassie hissed. "Billie, Jamie, where are the kids?"

The two women glanced at each other for a second.

"They're in their rooms, aren't they?"

"Yes, but what's going on…?" Jamie asked timidly.

"That girl is not who she says she is, and if we don't get out of here, we are in some serious _shit._"

No one had heard Cassie curse before, let alone say a bad word about anyone, even toward abusive husbands and spouses.

"What do you need us to do?" Jamie gulped.

"Billie, Jamie, get your kids and nothing else. Go."

The two women quickly dashed into the hallway and ran up the stairs, tiptoeing as silently as they could to reach their children.

"Allison, Victoria, Johnnie…" Cassie dug around in her pockets and found her keys to her car. "Get in my car. There's no time to get your coats or other belongings for the kids, so there's the emergency pack in the back that will do. Run over to the church when you're done." Even though they might be in the safe confines of the church soon thereafter, you couldn't take any chances in this frigid weather, especially when it came to the little ones.

She handed the keys to Victoria, and the three women silently made their way toward the front door, with Cassie in tow.

Allison was about to open the door when she saw the police office come back from talking to the dispatcher. His hand was on his gun; that made her extremely nervous.

"How dangerous is this situation?" she muttered to herself.

"Allison, open the damn door," Johnnie hissed. "We gotta get out."

She gulped, but did as Johnnie asked, and opened the door up.

"Officer," she said quietly to the police officer coming up toward the building. "We're all getting out and going to the church.."

The officer merely nodded, and held the door open for the women exiting. He could see that there were two other women coming down the stairs with their kids in their arms or leading them by the hand.

"Billie, Jamie," Cassie whispered to the two of them as they approached the door. "Get to the church. Victoria is opening up the car to get some warm clothes for your kids."

"Mommy, what's going on?" Rue asked in a meek voice.

"Sweetie, I don't know," was the reply.

* * *

Mina quickly opened up the window to her room to escape; a blast of cold air reminded her that she would not last very long outside without some sort of cold weather clothing. She hesitated for a second, then threw her body into the cold snow, the large snow drift cushioning her fall. Mina flailed around for a couple of seconds, trying to stand up before actually doing so.

Quite honestly, she didn't know what to do at this particular moment.

Perhaps she could steal a car or something to that accord…accord…wait, there was a car in the parking lot, but the police would be there.

No choice. Gotta keep moving, Mina thought. She fumbled about for a second, then started to wade through the deep snow, ignoring the biting pain and cold that permeated her body.

She tried to keep away from the windows, hoping that no one would look out and see her.

* * *

Allison hit the button on the key to open up the car in the parking lot.

The *Chirp chirp* sound from her left indicated that the car was indeed, parked there and was ready to go. Moving quickly to try to get out of the cold air, she opened up the driver's door and hit the switch to open the trunk.

"You could have just done that on the remote," Johnnie chastised.

"Sorry," she replied inattentively, standing up from the driver's side.

Allison saw two more police cars pull up, but they were not flashing their lights; doing so would have given away that there were more officers in the area. They quickly parked their cars near to the entrance of the shelter and two more officers hopped out, hands on their guns.

"Dispatch, this is 655," one of them said into his radio, walking apprehensively toward the entrance. "I'm on the scene with 715 and we're going in to secure the house, over."

"Roger that," a muffled voice said back. "Be advised, SWAT is ten minutes out, with FBI and Marshals right behind them, over."

"We'll just secure the area and make sure that she doesn't get out, out."

Officer 614 had seen the two cars arrive, and he opened the door to the shelter, waving to the two of them.

"James, what's the situation?" 715 asked him as he walked up toward the entrance.

"Suspect is somewhere in the building, most likely toward the rear."

"Is she armed?" 655 asked, stopping short of the entrance and talking a look around.

"I don't know," 614 said to him. He turned to Cassie, who was still standing there looking very nervous now. "Did you notice any weapons on her?"

"No…no I didn't." Cassie tried to think back to when that girl came back with her, but nothing stood out.

"Okay. Ma'am, you need to leave and join the others."

She needed no more prodding to get out of there. Cassie nodded to the officer, and said a silent prayer that everyone was going to be okay.

"Bill, go around to the side there and make sure that no one is going to get out through the windows."

Officer 715 nodded. "I'm on it." He ran toward the side of the building, leaving 614 and 655 to secure the front and the other side of the building.

* * *

Mina was still struggling through the snow when she saw a police officer come around the side, almost ten feet away from her.

There was a moment of pause as the two of them realized that the shit just hit the fan, but Mina made the first move. She charged as fast as she could through the deep snow and tackled the officer, who was going for his gun. The two of them fell to the ground, with the white stuff flying everywhere as they hit the ground.

"Mmmfff!" He tried to yell out for help, but Mina shoved some snow into his mouth and followed it up with a quick punch to the head. He was stunned and out of the picture for now.

"715, come in, over."

The radio on the officer's side chirped to life.

"Shit." Mina knew that she had even less time now. She looked up from the officer, toward the parking lot.

She saw her chance.

* * *

"Allison, jeez, could you move any more slowly?" Johnnie was passing some blankets out from the trunk to the other people; they took them and started to head over to the church.

"Johnnie, please," Cassie gently said. "We're all a little bit stressed here."

"Aren't there blankets in the church?" Johnnie said, passing a blanket to Jamie and company.

"There are, but the youth group took them and they haven't given them back yet," Cassie replied, handing the last blanket out to Billie. "Johnnie, head over with Billie and we'll finish up here."

The two women nodded, and started to make their way across the parking lot, with Johnnie bitching about how goddamn cold it was outside.

Cassie walked over the driver's side of the car after closing the trunk, keeping her head down to protect herself from the biting wind that had just now seemed to have picked up.

"Okay, Allison, can you hand me keys? I need to lock this car up."

There was no response.

"Allison?" Cassie looked over to the other side of the car and saw Mina there, with a gun to Allison's head.

"Make a sound, and she's dead," Mina growled at her. The terrified look on Allison's face showed that she meant business.

Cassie gulped, but nodded her head in compliance. She had been in worse situations before; she had been the hostage once before when the estranged husband of one of her charges had held a knife to her throat and screamed incoherently at police for thirty minutes before a SWAT officer subdued him from behind. That incident was not talked about much in the family, but it was a reminder that this job was not all rainbows and sunshine.

"I need you to get into the backseat of the car," Mina ordered. Again, Cassie complied with her orders, looking at the shelter and hoping that the police would get the hint. There was a clean line of sight to the car, but with the wind picking up…

* * *

"715, respond, over."

The static from 614's radio was not great sign. "715, do you copy, over?"

Still nothing.

"Damn." Officer 614 took his gun from his holster and flipped the safety off. Whatever was going on, it couldn't be good. With his free hand, he hit the push to talk receiver to 655.

"655, this is 614. Anything on your side?"

655 was checking the corner on the left side of the shelter. "That's a negative. Heard anything from Bill?"

"Nope. I'm moving to investigate, over."

614 started to walk slowly to the right side of the building, making sure that his corners were covered and that there wasn't any surprises waiting for him. SWAT was on the way of course, but when an officer's life was in danger, that required immediate and if necessary, lethal action.

614 approached the staircase to the right of the house and happened to glance out the window…and see that 715 was lying in the snow, completely out of it.

"Bill is down!" he screamed into his radio. "Officer down!"

Things kicked into high gear immediately after the call went out that an officer was down.

Almost every police officer fears that particular call; it means that one of your own has been felled by a no good, scum of the earth son of a bitch who had the gall to not only attack an officer of the law, but the very institution of what kept the bad guys from taking over and causing chaos.

This one was special though; every police officer in the Twin Cities area knew that Mina was a _very _dangerous individual who had already taken down a highly trained and equipped FBI SWAT team, which meant that the individual officer on the street wouldn't stand a chance when confronted by her. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America and the world, this was disconcerting to say the least.

The dispatcher was on the ball immediately. She had been coordinating the units in carefully, slowly, as not to alert the suspect to their presence. A perimeter one half mile surrounding the women's shelter had already been set up, with all incoming and outgoing vehicles searched. That was going to change.

The dispatcher could hear the watch officer screaming orders out, trying to get FBI and Marshals units there as fast as possible, while trying to contain the situation as best they could. She would have to do her best to make sure that everything would work out.

"All units, all units. Officer down at Saint Timothy Women's Shelter near Jade Lake Lutheran Church. Units 663, 771, 792, and 800 converge immediately on the shelter code 3 and assist 614. All perimeter units stop traffic and be on the lookout for suspicious activity."

At the same time, she got an update from the rapidly closing SWAT teams converging on the area

"Red Team 1 to dispatch, we are two minutes away from the shelter, over," a gruff voice said over the radio, with sirens now screaming in the background. They had been checking out some leads over in Windom when the call had gone out. Eager for action, they were pushing well over sixty MPH on residential roads.

"Blue Team 2 to dispatch, we are five minutes away from the shelter, over." Blue team was less experienced, but just as eager as Red Team, if not more so. They had been by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport when the call had gone out.

"Roger that," the dispatcher replied. "Be advised, suspect is considered to be very dangerous and proficient in unarmed combat, over."

* * *

"You'll never make it out of here," Cassie said coolly to Mina as she slid into the backseat.

"Just keep quiet, and buckle yourself in there." Mina didn't have any restraints, but having her passengers fasten their seat belts would delay their escape by a second or so. Just enough time for her to notice.

Inside the shelter, 614 was now heading toward the front door, assuming that the suspect was now outside and in the open.

"James, check on Bill over on the east side of the building, make sure he's alright."

"Roger that."

"I'm heading out toward the front and go take a look around in the parking lot, over."

Mina put the key into the ignition and turned it. A sputter from the engine was the only result.

"Shit."

"Must be the cold," Allison murmured. Cassie just nudged her to be quiet. She had noticed the doors were open, and in her haste to get out of there, Mina had forgotten to lock the doors.

She tried again. The car still sputtered, not turning over. It was unwise to leave a car out in the freezing Minnesota winter and then expect it to turn over the instant you needed it. Plus, you needed also to wait a couple of minutes before heading out so that the car could warm up (plus yourself inside too, with the heater turned up to full blast).

"Dammit." Mina tried the key again, only for the car to sputter some more.

Inside, 614 was checking in with the other officer to get a handle on the situation.

"James, how is Bill?" he asked into the radio, slowly approaching the front door.

"He's fine, but we're going to need an ambulance for his injuries."

"Roger. Dispatch, how much longer for those SWAT teams?"

"SWAT is two minutes out."

"Understood." The loud sirens screaming in the cold Minnesota air already made it obvious that there wasn't much time left for the suspect to escape.

A loud noise from the parking lot alerted the officer tending to his wounded comrade to some suspicious activity. "614, I hear a car trying to turn over in the parking lot," he said into his radio.

"I think that might be our guy. I'm going to come out of the front door in five seconds and approach the car. Stabilize Bill, and then assist me."

"Roger that."

About the fifth or sixth time trying to turn the stupid car over, Mina was about ready to get out of the car and leg it out of there.

In desperation she tried the key one last time.

Vroom. Vroom.

The magical sound of the car starting up was a wonderful one to say the least.

"Yes!" Mina exclaimed.

Cassie and Allison took her moment of distraction as their chance. They opened up their car doors and hit the release button on their seatbelts.

* * *

"MOVE!" Cassie screamed at Allison, trying to move as fast as she could in the slippery snow. At the same time, 614 opened the door to the parking lot and saw the two women escaping from the car.

"Shit!" The Beretta 92 snapped up and was now pointed at the windshield of the Camry. At fifty feet away though, plus wind and cold, the shot was going to be difficult to make, and there were two civilians in the line of fire.

Mina saw the officer with his gun in the front of the door, and felt the cold air from the backseat, indicating that her only bargaining chips were now gone. There was only one thing left to do now.

She put the car in reverse and stomped on the accelerator. The tires screamed against the slick pavement of the parking lot, but they grabbed hold and she swung the car around to get the hell out of there.

Slamming the car into "Drive", she repeated the accelerator stomping motion and sped out of there as quickly as possible.

"Suspect is now in a tan Camry, license plate number…" 614 almost didn't catch the plate number, but he managed to get a good look at it as it sped out of the parking lot. "Did you get that dispatch?"

"Roger that. We are directing units on the suspect's position. Standby."

"Are you alright?" 614 yelled out to Cassie as she and Allison struggled to get back to the building. He was running toward them, partly to cover their escape, but mostly see if he could try to stop the car. It was hopeless though, as the car had already sped out of the parking lot and down the road. Cassie could only nod her response.

Officer 655 also came running toward the parking lot as well, after checking up on the downed officer.

"Did she get away?" he asked, his pistol, a Glock 19, drawn in front of him.

"Nah. They'll get her, James." 614 motioned to the four police cars that went wailing past the parking lot in hot pursuit.

"We got to get back to Bill. I'll get the first aid kit from my car." 655 ran to his car, hoping that they would get the bitch that did this.

"Roger that," 614 mutter. He jogged to the fallen officer's position, cursing the day that this fugitive visited his city.

Mina could see that there were about four police cars in her rearview mirror, and that she needed to lose them fast. She could see that there was a highway in front of her, and the entrance was on her left.

_The highway is a bad idea, the highway is bad idea, the highway is a bad idea…_she kept repeating to herself, but she needed to put some distance between her and pursuers, if only a couple of miles.

"Goddammit Mina, GO!" she screamed to herself. Already doing fifty miles per hour on a residential street, she swerved left across an intersection, almost hitting several cars in the opposite lane as she did so.

* * *

"Units 663, 771, 792, and 800 report that they are in pursuit of a tan 2006 Camry, headed South toward Highway 62," the dispatcher said matter-of-factly into her radio. She issued a flurry of orders to the SWAT teams that were now screaming toward the fugitive.

"Red Team 1, divert on Highway 62 and be prepared to follow pursuit."

"Roger, dispatch."

"Blue Team 2, hold position by Highway 62 and 77. All traffic is to be stopped at that interchange."

"Roger that dispatch." The squealing of tires in the background told the dispatcher that they were probably on top of the situation.

At the highway intersection, Blue Team 2 had piled out of their SUVs and had stopped traffic on Highway 62 and were now waiting in anticipation for the suspect to come their way. The highway only had two lanes in both directions, and a divider of jersey wall blocking the opposing lanes from each other.

"This is Blue Team TL," one of the officers said into his radio, holding his M4 Carbine in one hand. "We are in position and awaiting for the suspect. All traffic is stopped." A long line of cars was already backing up

"Copy Blue Team. Suspect is one minute out and is traveling on the shoulder."

"Affirmative, we'll get her." Blue Team TL issued a variety of orders to make sure that suspect wouldn't get past them.

"Get that SUV and spike strip onto the shoulder! Watch your fields of fire and do NOT hit any civilians!" This kind of operation was incredibly risky, and if any civilians got hurt, there would be hell to pay. The terrorist attacks last December were very fresh in everyone's mind, and the populace would not tolerate any shit like that. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and if this was one way to get the suspect stopped, then so be it.

Behind them, five more units from the Minneapolis, St. Paul and of all places, the Airport police pulled up behind them to offer more assistance.

One minute passed. Nothing.

"Dispatch," the team leader said into his radio, "Where is the suspect?"

"Standby."

Another minute passed. Still no suspect. There were sirens in the background, but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.

"Dispatch, say again, where is the suspect?" The team leader was getting nervous now. This was not a good sign.

There was a moment of silence, then the dispatcher came back on the radio.

"Blue Team, we lost the suspect somewhere on Minnesota 62 and one of the residential roads. Suspect apparently jumped one of the fences."

That wasn't too much of a surprise to the team leader.

"Is the suspect on foot?" he asked.

"Negative. Suspect is still in the car, traveling at high speed."

"Holy shit," the team leader muttered into the radio, forgetting that he was transmitting.

"Didn't catch your last," the dispatcher politely said.

The team leader, slightly embarrassed by his indiscretion, tried a different approach to the worsening situation. "Any chance on air support?"

"Negative, Blue team. Weather is getting worse and has already grounded several flights at the airport. You're going to have to do a full sweep of the area."

"Shit." That was the last thing that the SWAT team leader wanted to hear. Reluctantly, he ordered his team to pack up and to start the search for the suspect in the nearby neighborhoods.

* * *

Several more lights joined the four police cars already on her tail as she entered the highway, tires barely gripping the cold, ice-covered asphalt.

"Get off my ass!" she growled to no one in particular. She needed to do something drastic, something unexpected…

There was no way she could reverse into the opposite lane, jersey wall was blocking that route. There had to be something that could offer a way out…

Up ahead, she saw her chance. There was a footbridge arching over the highway, with entrances of course, on each side. Mina wasn't interested in getting out on foot though. A road leading through a residential area was just on the other side, and no police were guarding that particular area. It was a long shot, but it might work.

She guessed that she was no more than three-hundred feet away, which gave her very little room to maneuver. Thankfully, that applied to her pursuers as well.

"Come on…come on…" The distance to the footbridge closed rapidly; two hundred feet….one hundred…fifty…ten…

Mina stomped on the brake and swerved the car hard to the right. Deep snow drifts lined the highway, caused by the howling wind over the winter season and added to by snowplows clearing the road.

She hit the snowdrift going about thirty miles an hour. She had dumped enough speed that hitting the snowdrift wouldn't completely wreck the car, but would allow for enough momentum to at least attempt to get over the drift, the chainlink fence buried beneath it, and hopefully to the residential road on the other side.

There was a loud "thud" as Mina's car collided with the snowdrift; the hardened and caked-over snow provided an adequate ramp for the car to leap over the fence separating the highway from the houses right next to the road. Time slowed down for a second as she was momentarily suspended in the air.

Then, it was all over. A deafening "crack" of the impact of the car coming down on the other side of the fence and onto a nearby road told the entire story. The car sputtered a little bit, for the most part, it was in one piece.

Mina looked in the rearview mirror to see the police cars come to screeching halt, taken completely off guard by her bold maneuver.

"Alright, gotta find a way out of here…" she muttered to herself, driving down the road, the wails of police sirens echoing in the distance.


End file.
